====== SLUUG Steering Committee Minutes - 1 April 2009 ====== NOTE: Minutes posted on the wiki are always unofficial. Schedules for upcoming presentations are always tentative. (Some more tentative than others!) ====== Location ====== Saint Louis Bread Company, (at Old Olive and Olive), 10550 Old Olive Street Road, Creve Coeur, MO 63141 ====== Date and Time ====== * Wednesday, April 1, 2009 * 6:30 PM - 8:45 PM ====== Attendees ====== * Tony Lovasco * Mike Wilkerson * Carl Fitch * Lee Lamert * Craig Buchek * Gary Meyer * Stan Reichardt * Jerry Stutte ====== Recognize Useful Effort ====== * Recognize completed action items. * Recognize who did anything useful. ====== Secretary Report ====== * Secretary has printed out minutes up through March. ====== Treasurer Report ====== * Balance: $1361.65 as of 2/28/2009 * Accounts Payable: $100.00 for booth at Small Business Expo * Accounts Paid: $90.03 for electricity at Small Business Expo ====== Mailing List Report ====== * Subscriber numbers (approximate) as of end of March 2009: | List ^ Mar ^ Apr ^ May ^ Jun ^ Jul ^ Aug ^ Sep ^ Oct ^ Nov ^ Dec ^ Jan ^ Feb ^ Mar ^ ^ ANNOUNCE | 853 | 854 | 843 | 835 | 830 | 828 | 807 | 805 | 802 | 791 | 790 | 786 | 785 | ^ DISCUSS | 186 | 1?? | 188 | 188 | 192 | 193 | 192 | 193 | 194 | 196 | 201 | 206 | 212 | ^ STEERCOM | 31 | ?? | 29 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 35 | ^ SYSADMIN | 17 | ?? | 15 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | * Numbers will now be as end of each month. * Blocking of mailing list attachments not completely configured yet. * ANNOUNCE mailing list. * Still no volunteer editor to do a quarterly or monthly newsletter. ====== Attendance Report ====== * Numbers, as of end of March 2009: | Meeting ^ Mar ^ Apr ^ May ^ Jun ^ Jul ^ Aug ^ Sep ^ Oct ^ Nov ^ Dec ^ Jan ^ Feb ^ Mar ^ ^ Steercom | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5| 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | ^ SLACC | (4)| ? | x | 6 | 9 | 8 | 6 | ? | 4| 4 | - | 6 | 5 | ^ SLUUG | 23 | 17 | 31 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 20| 27 | 24 | 23 | 18 | ^ STLOSUG | 6 | - | 20 | 10 | - | 12 | - | 11 | 10| 7 | 6 | xxx | 8 | ^ SNUG | NA | NA | NA | 5 | 4 | - | 5 | 3 | 5?| - | 7 | xxx | - | ^ STLLUG | 16 | 17 | 29 | 22 | 20 | 23 | 13 | 15 | 11| 10 | 19 | 32 |18(21)| ^ STCLUG | 3 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 19 | -| 6 | 11? | 12 | 9 | ^ HZWLUG | 14 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 9 | 11 | 9| 4 | 2 | 8 | 7 | ^ MythTV | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | -| - | - | 8 | - | * - - indicates no meeting. * NA - Not part of SLUUG * () - Numbers in parentheses are head count. * ? - Question mark indicates attendance not taken or sheet missing. * xx - attendance numbers not yet recorded. * Added MythTV as a SIG. ====== Meeting Review and Comments ====== ===== March 2009 ===== March 2009 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 ==== SLACC - March 5 ==== * Linux configuration workshop - no presentation * Was Internet available, any issues? ==== SLUUG - March 11 ==== * BASE: Internet Tablet Demo by Jerry Stutte * Lots of participation. Really good demo and interaction. * Needs to post some of the info referenced to DISCUSS list. * MAIN: March Through Linux /proc by Carl * Need a re-do. ==== Solaris - March 17 ==== * TOPIC: Continuation of System Build * Really really good. Jeff Muse set up zones. ==== SNUG - March 18 ==== * CANCELLED Because of StL Business Expo on same day. ==== StL Business Expo March 18 ==== * SLUUG Booth * See Discussion Below ==== STLLUG - March 19 ==== * TOPIC: Podcasting and New Media by Mike Wilkerson * Very good. Different than most of our presentations. ==== HZWLUG - March 24 ==== * Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one. * TOPIC1: Miscellaneous * Not many questions asked. ==== STCLUG - March 26 ==== * TOPIC: Bulk Deployment with Linux by Tony Lovasco * Some technical issues; had to improvise. * PLANNING: Free Software and Technology Expo * No longer calling it Ubuntu Release Party * See Discussion Below ==== MythTV - NO MARCH MEETING ==== * This SIG meets at irregular intervals. ====== Presentation Schedule ====== ===== April 2009 ===== April 2009 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 ==== SLACC - April 2 ==== * Linux configuration workshop - no presentation ==== SLUUG - April 8 ==== * BASE: GNU screen by Jeff Muse * Main: Live Demo of IBM Virtualization by Barry Morrison, IBM (via Lee) * Backup: WordPress by Craig Buchek ==== SNUG - April 15 ==== * TOPIC: TBD (lunch meeting) ==== STLLUG - April 16 ==== * TOPIC: Open Source on the Desktop: Why Not? (TENTATIVE, via Gary) * by Don Hardaway and Craig Van Slyke (St. Louis University) * See first article [[http://lwn.net/Articles/293907/ | here]] ==== STLOSUG (Solaris) - April 21 ==== * TOPIC: Continuation of System Build - DNS * Last month of this topic! ==== STCLUG - April 23 ==== * TOPIC: Google Calendar by Stan Reichardt * TOPIC: Google Gadgets by Jerry Stutte ==== HZWLUG - April 28 ==== * Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one. * OPTION1: Continued exploration of /var directory. * OPTION2: Exploring the GNOME File Manager. * OPTION3: Partitions. * OPTION4: Anything else. ==== MythTV - NO APRIL MEETING ==== * This SIG meets at irregular intervals. ===== May 2009 ===== May 2009 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 ==== SLACC - May 7 ==== * Linux configuration workshop - no presentation ==== SLUUG - May 13 ==== * BASE: Using System Rescue by Carl Fitch * Main: Firefox Extensions by Mike Wilkerson ==== STLOSUG (Solaris) - May 19 ==== * TOPIC: TBD ==== SNUG - May 20 ==== * TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD) ==== STLLUG - May 21 ==== * TOPIC: Patent-Free Codecs (Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, FLAC, Dirac) by Tony Lovasco ==== HZWLUG - May 26 ==== * Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one. ==== STCLUG - May 28 ==== * TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD) ==== MythTV - NO MAY MEETING ==== * This SIG meets at irregular intervals. ====== Potential Presenters ====== These are some people who can present, and possible topics they can speak about. * June Topic: * Creating your own Neural Network to scan DNA (or other interesting stuff) * Bryce Meyer (bmeyer@sei.cmu.edu) - confirmed at April Main * Jerry Stutte * OpenGL (June 2009 STLLUG) * Kyle Cordes * Puppet * git and GitHub * Flying Boxes * Hostirian/Primary.NET * Tour of their data center * What it takes to run a hosting data center * Wehrenberg Theaters (via Gary) * TOUR/DEMO: Digital cinema projectors * Sanjiv Bhatia (or someone from UMSL, via Lee) * TOPIC: AIX 6 * TOPIC: Open Grid Computing * December or January * David Letscher (Prof of CS at SLU) (via Gary) * TOPIC: TBD * Still gone for summer. Awaiting details. * Rick Clark (Ubuntu) (via Craig) * TOPIC: TBD * Might be able to talk to STCLUG and STLLUG * Jeff Logullo (Sun) * TOPIC: MySQL - now a Sun product * TOPIC: Project Indiana, a new package management system a la apt/dpkg * TOPIC: Versioning filenames (snapshots?) in ZFS * TOPIC: New release of ZFS * TOPIC: Belenix & other live CD's based on Open Solaris * Scott Nesler * TOPIC: GIMP (follow-up from previous presentation) * TOPIC: PGP and GPG * Jeff Muse * TOPIC: various Solaris topics * Stan Reichardt * TOPIC/DEMO: Google Calendar * TOPIC/DEMO: Using Scribus * Tim Dreste (via Stan R) * TOPIC: Untangle Gateway Platform * TOPIC: CentOS Linux * Don Ellis * Mac OS X Snow Leopard * Craig Buchek * git and GitHub * ack (grep replacement) * GNU grep (--count, --context, -e, --color) * wget and curl * Mac OS X topics * Ruby on Rails * Test-Driven Development (or get Brian Button, if possible) * Tony Lovasco * ??? * Mike Wilkerson * Round-Table on Joe Linux User (moderator) ====== Potential Topics ====== These are some topics that we've had requested, or brainstormed, but need to find speakers for. * Unix glossary - define terms * mount point * white space * "well-behaved" app * zombies * parent process * Knoppix karaoke (various users sit in front of Knoppix system) * regedit - edit Windows registry from Linux * Drawing network diagrams using Dia or OpenOffice Draw * Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5) * Still looking for volunteer; tried Clark Smith at Red Hat * Fedora recent releases * SuSE or OpenSUSE recent releases * Someone from Novell? * Gary Hollingsworth? * HP-UX current release, features, future * Dave Mills? * HP corporate? * iSCSI * Using git * CPUs * Features of modern Intel/AMD CPUs * x86-64 * x86, x86-64, IA64, Sparc, PowerPC, ARM, POWER * iPhone * Developing for (web, native) * iPhone competitors * LG Dare * Samsung Instinct * Other Linux-based phones * LiMo versus Google Android * Linux from scratch. * SplashTop - a quick booting distro. * PGP/GPG use in Email * Thunderbird Enigmail * KMail * Google Android * Gateway and STL JUGs both recently had presentations * GUI builders (GLADE, KDevelop) ====== Small Business Expo ====== * Small Business Expo was March 18. * Very nice day. * Plenty of support. * Handed out 100 fliers. * Lots of people stopped by and said that they use Linux. ====== STCLUG ====== * Scott Nesler purchased and donated STCLUG.ORG domain. * Gary renewed STCLUG.ORG domain. * Craig added to Apache configuration, so it now runs off our servers properly. * Craig will add DNS records on our EveryDNS account. * Gary needs to create DNS records in EveryDNS and point the domain at EveryDNS. * Currently pointing at GoDaddy parking page. ====== SLACC ====== * Need to register SLACC.COM domain. * Carl - follow up with Noel about transferring the SLACC.COM domain to us. * Expires in September 2009; need to renew. * Check on SLACC.ORG - seems to be owned by a cybersquatter. * Expires in August 2009. * Noel asked that we allow current email users to keep their SLACC.COM email addresses. * ACTION ITEM: Carl, Gary - Transfer and renew SLACC.COM domain. ====== StlWebDev ====== * Lee proposed resurrecting StlWebDev as a SLUUG SIG. * Lee spoke w/ Allan Trick, president of (now-defunct) StlWebDev group. * They're willing to abide by SLUUG terms. * They've not held meetings for some time. * Would like to move the web site and mailing list to our servers. * Mailing list would be separate from our DISCUSS list. * Using our Mailmain and Apache services. * Unanimous agreement. * Mailing lists have been set up. * Web site has been recovered from old server. * Needs to be pruned - 250 MB. ====== Server Admin ====== * Lee will install (and document) Webalizer on Bud, to gather web stats. * Craig updated DokuWiki to the latest version. * Partitions on Bud are getting full. * Home and var partitions. * Tony looked into prices for 9 SCA hard drives - 36 GB and 72 GB. * $49 / drive for 72 GB drives. * Discussion on whether it might make more sense to replace the systems. * Discussion on whether it might make more sense to move storage to a separate NAS box. * Leaning toward NAS solution. * Jeff installed Solaris 10 on the E250 with the hard drives. * Ran into mirroring issues, due to disk sizes. * Omnitec offered to provide secondary DNS for us. * We would provide secondary DNS for them. * Lee and Carl would maintain DNS on both ends. * Dark is alive again, thanks to a campus-wide power outage. * Anyone who needs to get anything off should do so ASAP. * We should retire this system. * Wash U took our **webdev** box (128.252.19.27) off network Mon December 1. * They detected questionable IRC traffic with IP addresses in Finland & Norway. * We should analyze and respond. * Jeff Muse added Ultra and Busch - Sun Netras running Solaris 10. * Expect to use one like Bud and one for backup storage. * We have 2 Sun E250s, which are currently racked but not connected. * Carl proposed parting out those boxes. * Craig concurred. * One of the systems is reporting a bad/missing CPU. * The other seems to be OK, but needs power and an OS. * Jeff got 4 x 36 GB hard drives, and placed in the good Sun E250. * We're planning to setup our own DNS on Ultra/Busch. * Make our own servers authoritative for our own domains. * Would allow us to publish reverse records. * Primary has said they can allow this. * Would allow us to publish SPF records. * We could offer dyanmic DNS services to our members. * On a subdomain, such as users.sluug.org * Steve Smith (from Solaris SIG) offered a 36 GB drive to install in one of the Netras. ====== Server Management ====== * Backups * Work left to do: * Make sure docs are up to date. * Add documentation telling users how to configure mail clients to use Bud. * Started documenting client email configurations, to help users migrate. * See [[../users]] and [[../mail_setup]] pages. * Craig - Work on finishing server builds. * Document changes to PAM to correct MAIL variable. (Craig) * More security, for SSH and otherwise. * Get offsite backups working. (Mike) * Publish SSH host keys on web page. * Standardize/regularize user accounts (IDs, password expirations). (Mike) * Other work to do: * Better web site management tools * Document useradd process. * Develop standardized 'Membership List' & same UIDs on all production machines. ====== Sponsorships ====== * Lee said that Hostirian is looking for more out of their sponsorship of our hosting. * Move their logo up on our home page. * Include both Hostirian and Primary.NET logos on our web site. * Somehow determine how many hits we're sending to them. * Tony Lovasco will look into getting some sponsorships. ====== Membership (and Shell Accounts) ====== * Craig had a discussion with Jim Leingang about membership, and got several suggestions. * Assign small task to more members, so they feel more a part of the organization. * For example, have someone new every month doing sign-in sheets and new user contact. * Reward good behaviors. * Awards at the end of the year. * Provide incentives (like door prizes) for people who bring in new members. * Membership drive * Need to print out name tags. * Omnitec will print them out and bring to SLUUG meeting. * Cafe Press merchandise * Carl/SLUUG/Lee need to reconcile demo merchandise * Lee has proposed to sell pizzas as fund-raiser if continued insufficient Memberships & Sponsors. ====== Manage The Group ====== * Lee suggested we create a Rails app on Bud to manage the group. * Member data - payments, expirations, etc. * Sponsors - expirations, etc. * Attendance * STL Ruby Group is writing a similar application. * RAMS - Rails Association Management System * We should leverage that, and guide it to our needs * Scott Nesler has built an app for attendance * Stan has plugged data into it for the year * Not sure if the app fits any of our other needs * (app is developed on CakePHP MVC architecture). * Member Payment, expiration would be simple addition to existing table/screens. * CRUD functionality simplifies expanding the application with additional tables. * Compartmentalization of CSS and layout templates simplifies changes to the look and feel. ====== Improve Attendance ====== * Gary suggests we discuss why the #s on the general meeting and STLLUG are so low! * What can be done to return them to more traditional values? * Also relate to subscriptions to ANNOUNCE. * Gary suggests we talk about what can be done about the declining subscriptions to ANNOUNCE. * A ~20% drop in 18 months! (And it was over 1000...when?) * Craig gave away a stuffed penguin as a door prize. * Had stated that whoever brought the most (new, returning) people to STLLUG meeting. * Tony Z won the penguin, bringing his Linux class to the meeting. ====== Free Software and Technology Expo ====== * Rick Clark from Canonical proposed SLUUG sponsor an Ubuntu release party. * Official Name: Free Software and Technology Expo * Date will be 2nd Saturday in May - May 9. * Runs from 1 PM to 7 PM (NOTE: time change) * Setup from noon to 1 PM * Tony Lovasco from Nexradix paid for [[http://www.westportstl.com | Westport Plaza]] location. * Sheraton (900 Westport Plaza) - gold tower * Tony has registered [[http://freesoftwareexpo.com | freesoftwareexpo.com]] * Single ballroom - 75' x 30' * Tables in a horseshoe, with projector * Booths around the edges * SLUUG membership desk * Potential Presentations * something by Rick Clark of Canonical / Ubuntu (TENTATIVE - have not heard from him) * Open Source Licensing: What You Need to Know by Craig Buchek * something by Scott Granneman (TENTATIVE) * something security-related by Christine Wanta * Open Source in an Economic Downturn by Craig Buchek * Why Ubuntu? (POTENTIAL) * Were You Worried About Conficker? We Weren't! (POTENTIAL) * Need to have speakers confirmed by Tuesday April 7. * Need bio and synopsis (with photo, if possible) - send to Tony Lovasco. * No longer calling it Ubuntu Release Party * Changed references to a Ubuntu Release Party to simple Ubuntu Release coming end of April * Changed home pages for SLUUG, STLLUG, STCLUG and STL computer events calendar * Planning to visit Westport site at 5:30 on Wednesday April 8. * Meet at Pujols 5 at 5:00 PM. ====== Follow-up and Action Items ====== * Everyone - Talk to someone about coming to meetings. * Everyone - Talk to someone about sponsorships. * Everyone - Talk to someone about giving a presentation. * Lee - Please ask Sammie to bring past (and current) presentation to us on thumb drive. * Gary - Follow up with Don Hardaway and Craig Van Slyke (St. Louis University). * Craig - Follow up with Kyle Cordes on Puppet. * Gary - Update STLLINUX.ORG to show 3 names in WHOIS data. * Gary - Point STCLUG.ORG domain registrar to EveryDNS name servers. * Gary - Clean up home directory on Bud. * Carl, Gary - Transfer and renew SLACC.COM domain. * Craig - Follow up w/ Scott Granneman about talking at Expo. * Craig - Send bio/abstract to Tony Lovasco.